Huckabee Pretended to Get a Phone Call from God Endorsing Bush in '04

Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress at 3:00 PM on November 29, 2007.

This post, written by Faiz Shakir, originally appeared on Think Progress

Last night at the CNN/YouTube debate, a questioner asked the candidates -- "who would call yourselves Christian conservatives" -- to answer what would Jesus do about the death penalty. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee jokingly responded, "Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office. That's what Jesus would do."

It was fitting that Huckabee be asked what Jesus thinks because, in the past, the former Baptist minister has asserted an ability to talk directly to God.

At a Republican Governors Association Dinner in 2004, Huckabee took the stage and began to deliver remarks when his cell phone rang. He took the phone out of his pocket and proceeded to have a conversation with God about President Bush's reelection:

HUCKABEE: Hello? I'm sorry. I'm right in the middle of an event. It's who? It's God? On the phone for me? How did he get my number? Oh, God has everybody's number. OK? Yes, I'll hold.

Huckabee then engaged in a 3-minute back-and-forth exchange with God, in which Huckabee asserted that God was with the Republicans and President Bush:

We're behind [Bush], yes, sir, we sure are. Yes, sir, we know you don't take sides in the election. But, if you did, we kind of think you'd hang in there with us, Lord, we really do.

Huckabee then ended his conversation and walked off the stage to roaring applause. ThinkProgress has obtained the video from this 2004 GOP fundraiser. Watch it to your right.

As Matt Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone, Huckabee's religious zealotry has potentially serious consequences:

This God stuff isn't just talk with Huck. One of his first acts as governor was to block Medicaid from funding an abortion for a mentally retarded teen-ager who had been raped by her stepfather -- an act in direct violation of federal law, which requires states to pay for abortions in cases of rape. "The state didn't fund a single such abortion while Huckabee was governor," says Dr. William Harrison of the Fayetteville Women's Clinic. "Zero."

As president, Huck would support a constitutional amendment banning abortion and would give science a back seat to religion. "Science changes with every generation and with new discoveries, and God doesn't," he says. "So I'll stick with God if the two are in conflict." Huckabee's well-documented disdain for science was reflected in the performance of the Arkansas school system when he was governor; one independent survey gave the state an F for its science standards in schools, a grade that among other things reflected Huckabee's hostility toward the teaching of evolution.

Well before Rudy was taking calls from his wife, Huckabee was answering direct dials from God.

Tagged as: abortion, election08, religious conservatives, huckabee

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.